Pedagogy Books?

April 24, 2015 at 03:54 AM · Since pedagogy is unrelated to the subject you are teaching it is the same books that are recommended for everyone, the books by Vygotskijs and Piaget are a good start.

They are a tad old, left-wing, stereotyped and very generalized. But they are the fundation of all pedagoges. After you red them there are more modern books that can complete them.

April 24, 2015 at 12:24 PM · Fundamentals of Violin Playing, by Pernecky, contains a lot of reference material at the end of the book on various pedagogical approaches to learning and teaching. You might be able to view it on-line somewhere and pick off the names mentioned for further internet research.

Piaget is mentioned as a very general influence. Quickly restated for the violin: students need an overall goal which is obtained by the learning of technique. Once the goal is achieved, that can act as a springboard to another goal.

But I think his focus was on establishing a foundation for learning in children as opposed to actually learning something specific. I've used the ideas for my kids and grandkids to develop an innate sense of physical and mental inquisitiveness.

Or maybe I am just being lazy by letting them do whatever they want when they are at Poppop's house. >grin<

My background in formal education is with gifted students in math and physics. The tendency of some teachers is to get caught up in the minutiae of theorems and theories, aka "technique", and not really apply it to anything. The major complaint is keeping students on task.

I found that by stating some famous application of a theory as the "goal", the students became very enthusiastic about mastering techniques that pose a tedious challenge.

Since the ultimate goal of playing a violin is to make music, I found an effective learning process for me is to select a piece of music as my goal and then develop a program to learn the techniques needed to play it.

I suspect this is why the Suzuki method is so popular and successful since the books seem built around playing music as the ultimate goal.

April 24, 2015 at 05:15 PM · It's more a biography than a book specifically on pedagogy, but I recently read "Teaching Genius: Dorothy Delay and the Making of a Musician" It contained a lot of insight into Miss Delay's teaching methods and ideas that might be helpful. Galamian's classic "Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching" contains some possibly useful information too. Hope that helps! :)

April 24, 2015 at 06:10 PM · Simon Fischer's The Violin Lesson is my current favorite.

April 26, 2015 at 09:23 AM · Paul Roland.

April 26, 2015 at 04:36 PM · I teach a violin pedagogy course for upper and lower string players who are pursuing a music education degree. I know about Todd Ehle's, Kurt Sassmannshaus, and Michael Hopkins' websites. Are there other good ones out there?

April 26, 2015 at 09:40 PM · Bruce -- Two very helpful string teaching programs are the Paul Rolland Workshops that take place July 27-31, and Mimi Zweig's string teaching program, which is held at Indiana University.

The Rolland workshop is conducted by his former students. Mimi's program also has an excellent faculty. I strongly recommend both for private studio and public school string teachers.

April 27, 2015 at 04:43 AM · I don't agree with everything in this book (particularly his observations on teaching expression) but Ivan Galamian was one of the best-ever for teaching violin technique and there is fantastic wisdom in the pages of this book:

Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching

April 28, 2015 at 01:09 AM · Greetings,

I agree. It isn't my favorite book and it has been surpassed by Simons in many ways but was really the first time an absolutely logical and coherent approach to the violin had been spelled out . It laid the groundwork for what followed and it isn't surprising that much of Simons work includes Galamians ideas and quotes from him. He was, like him or hate him, truly brilliant . Any serious teacher who hasn't studied this book in depth basically has a big gap in their know how.

Cheers,

Buri

July 20, 2015 at 07:30 PM · - Elisabeth A.H.Green: "Galamian in the Studio"(it's a postscript to the second edition of Galamian's "Principles...")

- Dominique Hoppenot: "Le violon interieur"

- Paul Rolland:"Basic Principles of Violin Playing"